When sixteen-year-old Alfred Rosenberg is called into his headmaster's office for anti-Semitic remarks he made during a school speech, he is forced, as punishment, to memorize passages about Spinoza from the autobiography of the German poet Goethe. Rosenberg is stunned to discover that Goethe, his idol, was a great admirer of the Jewish seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Long after graduation, Rosenberg remains haunted by this "Spinoza problem" how could the German genius Goethe have been inspired by a member of a race Rosenberg considers so inferior to his own, a race he was determined to destroy?Spinoza himself was no stranger to punishment during his lifetime. Because of his unorthodox religious views, he was excommunicated from the Amsterdam Jewish community in 1656, at the age of twenty-four, and banished from the only world he had ever known. Though his life was short and he lived without means in great isolation, he nonetheless produced works that changed the course of history. Over the years, Rosenberg rose through the ranks to become an outspoken Nazi ideologue, a faithful servant of Hitler, and the main author of racial policy for the Third Reich. Still, his Spinoza obsession lingered. By imagining the unexpected intersection of Spinoza's life with Rosenberg's, internationally bestselling novelist Irvin D. Yalom explores the mindsets of two men separated by 300 years. Using his skills as a psychiatrist, he explores the inner lives of Spinoza, the saintly secular philosopher, and of Rosenberg, the godless mass murderer.

歐文．亞隆（Irvin D. Yalom）

1931年6月13日生於美國華盛頓特區，父母是俄羅斯人，第一次大戰後移民美國。亞隆是美國當代精神醫學大師級人物，也是造詣最深的心理治療思想傢。早年師承新佛洛伊德學派大師蘇利文（Harry S. Sullivan），將以人際關係為基礎的心理治療理論發揚光大，成為美國團體治療的當代權威，並將存在主義心理學融入心理治療中。曾任教於美國史丹佛大學，目前是該校榮譽退休教授，且仍在加州派洛艾圖及舊金山執業。他的著作極受重視，包括心理治療經典作品《存在心理治療》、《日漸親近》、《生命的禮物》、《凝視太陽》等，以及廣為人知的心理小說係列《愛情劊子手》、《診療椅上的謊言》、《當尼采哭泣》、《叔本華的眼淚》等。《斯賓諾莎問題》是亞隆最新心理小說力作。

譯者簡介

易之新

開業醫師，文字工作者，長久以來對西方心理學、心理治療充滿興趣，也對東方傳統智慧與修行感到好奇，翻譯作品多與這兩個主題有關，代錶作有《存在心理治療》、《聖徒與瘋子》、《踏上心靈幽徑》（張老師文化），以及《榮格人格類型》、《榮格心理治療》、《當下覺醒》、《生命的禮物》、《叔本華的眼淚》、《超個人心理治療》、《關係花園》、《疾病的希望》（心靈工坊）等。